New Campaign against Landlordism needed

national | anti-capitalism | opinion/analysis

Saturday March 22, 2008 15:23

by Cael - Sinn Féin Poblachtach

It seems to me that we have well and truly returned to the days of Michael Davitt and the Land League. Where huge numbers of people are being bled dry by a small group of Landlords. And what do these latterday Landlords do with their ill gotten gains? Like the Landlords of old, they take the money out of the country. The Landlord class in Ireland have bought overseas land and buildings to the sum of 1.2 trillion euro - that right 1200 billion euro.

I was just talking to a friend of mine who lives in a tiny two bed house in Dublin with three other people. They pay 1800 euro a month. My friend tells me that this Landlord bought this house for about 5000 free state pounds in the 1980s. The Landlord now has over one hundred houses and apartments in Dublin. It seems to me that we have well and truly returned to the days of Michael Davitt and the Land League. Where huge numbers of people are being bled dry by a small group of Landlords. And what do these latterday Landlords do with their ill gotten gains? Like the Landlords of old, they take the money out of the country. The Landlord class in Ireland have bought overseas land and buildings to the sum of 1.2 trillion euro - that right 1200 billion euro. Imagine what this money could have done if it were used to build up Irish Industry. Instead we remain totally dependent on foreign multi-nationals who are already starting to move to Eastern Europe. How much longer can we endure this abuse, I wonder?

We see that the Landlord class are so confident now that the Irish people are utterly defeated that they feel the can bulldoze Tara and cover it in Gombeen Concrete. This will go down in history are the ultimate victory of Gombeenism, Coruption and Landlordism in Ireland. Politicians have been groomed and bought off with dig-outs, brown envelopes and whip-a-rounds - so that when they are not actually encouraging Landlord attacks on the Irish people, they are turning a blind eye to it and saying "thats just the way it is."